National Treasure

National Treasure 01/15/2007

I saw National Treasure a couple of nights ago for the second time, and I figured I would give you some thoughts on how I thought the movie was. I thought it was a good movie. It had a good story line, and the actors and actresses were good. Though the movie was not a comedy, there were several funny parts in the movie. The movie also was somewhat historical (even though the movie is mostly fiction), and brought up a lot about our founding fathers. But beyond all this, perhaps the best thing about the movie was that it was almost completely clean. This was a movie that would in most cases have much cursing and rude humor, but in this movie there was little or none of that. The movie was rated PG, probably for the few semi-violent scenes, and a complicated story line, but could have easily been turned into a PG13 rating (a pg13 rating that would be an R rating in 1960 perhaps).
The movie, in case you haven't seen it, was about a man born under the family line of those who supposedly held the knowledge that there was a national treasure- a treasure of world history artifacts going back for thousands of years. The treasure was held by the free masons. Some of the founding fathers were masons i.e. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, etc. in fact, about half of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence were masons. Of course the story line exaggerated the facts most likely into a fictional story, with a few truths. Finally, someone in the family line held the first clue that had been passed down, and he decided to search for the treasure, even against his fathers advice, who was skeptical to the movie. However, this man worked hard with the partnership of his friend, Riley, with the mindset that you have got to do what is considered wrong to do what is right- just as the founders of this country did. They did have enemies, however. They had to work against others in search of the treasure. Of course, like most movies, the end works out good for the good guys and bad for the bad guys. The Declaration of Independence was stolen, and it help lead the way to more clues in search of the treasure. With the help of a worker at the national archives in Washington D.C., the treasure was found, by the good guys, who then split the treasure with the world, symbolizing the balance of power the founding fathers wanted for the country. Just as one man does not get all the treasure, so not one man gets all the power in a government.
The movie was not political, but it did indirectly bring up a few questions, questions answered best with the philosophy of a conservative or libertarian. The movie put emphasis on the founding fathers, and their desires. At the end, there was even a comment made by Nicholas Cage, the biggest star in the film, about balance of power, which the founding fathers did to help minimize government. The movie also portrayed the Declaration of Independence, and included a moving line about how different the founding fathers spoke compared to people of today. If we spoke and talked the same way our founding fathers did, we would be much smarter and wiser about our government, those that represent us and are supposed to protect us.
So with this in mind, I encourage you to pick up and look at the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution, or some other important national document (not the original of course), and read it, and read it thoroughly. Try to understand more about what our founding fathers had in mind for this country.